Shattered Roads

by ALICE HENDERSON

  She remained still. Above the eerie stillness of the mountain, she heard thrumming. She strained to make it out. A vibrating, cyclic noise, coming from the east. A layer of clouds still hung low in that direction. To the west she could see blue skies and the sun hanging above a line of snow-capped mountains.

  The noise grew louder, moving above the clouds. She lifted her face, and her heart started to hammer. It didn’t sound like a plane. It didn’t sound like a PPC airship either. She had no idea what it was, as the clouds obscured it.

  The sound loudened until whatever it was hovered directly above her, hidden in the mist. Then a machine descended, dipping below the gray clouds. A large propeller spun on the top of it, with a smaller one mounted on the tail. The body of the machine was an oval of sorts, with a large sliding door on one side. Inside the cabin, she saw a woman gripping the control stick. The door slid open, and a familiar face grinned down at her. His blue eyes twinkled beneath a crop of short blond hair.

  “Rowan!” she shouted. Unable to control herself, she jumped up and down. “Rowan!” Her ribs cursed at her for the movement, as did Gordon.

  “There you are!” he called above the din of the rotors. “Quite a storm!”

  “I’m so glad to see you!” She wanted to fall down on her knees and cry. Instead, she knelt by Gordon. “We’re saved!”

  His eyes fluttered.

  “Can you land?” she called up to Rowan.

  He turned to the pilot, then pointed at a flat spot a few hundred feet away. The pilot maneuvered the machine down, and a tremendous wind kicked up snow into a fine mist. The pilot cut the engine as they touched down.

  Rowan jumped out and ran to her. She met him halfway, her exhaustion forgotten. He gathered her up in his arms. She pressed her face into his warm neck and breathed in his delicious scent. “I am so glad to see you,” she said, squeezing him so tightly she felt a sharp stab in her ribs.

  “When I didn’t hear back from you, I got worried,” he said.

  She pulled away from him, confused. “Hear back from me?”

  “After I responded that I was on my way, that I’d found the helicopter.”

  “I didn’t get that message.”

  He frowned. “Really?”

  She pulled out her PRD, checking it. Nothing. He looked at the display too, his face laden with worry.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  Before he had the chance to answer, another sound drifted down the mountain, a low thrumming that was all too familiar. Her stomach dropped

  “An airship,” Rowan breathed. “They must have intercepted our signal.”

  The thrumming grew louder as clouds scudded away in the wind. Descending from that gray layer came a thundering metal airship, identical to the one that had wreaked havoc on the Badlander encampment.

  “Maybe it’s Willoughby,” she told him. But she knew she hadn’t given him her location, and dread sank into her gut. Maybe they had tracked Rowan.

  Rowan grabbed her arm. “Get to the helicopter, quick! We can try to outrun them.”

  Already the pilot had restarted the helicopter, spinning the rotors to life.

  “But Gordon!”

  “I’ll get him. Just get to the helicopter.”

  She didn’t like this, but she also knew Rowan wasn’t as exhausted or injured and would have an easier time getting Gordon to safety.

  She took off for the helicopter, wincing with pain every time she tried to breathe. Rowan dashed over to Gordon. Even as the airship wheeled in the sky, spotting them, she hoped it was friendly. But if it wasn’t, there was no more time. They’d be an easy target on the ground, too easily destroyed by the airship’s tremendous firepower. Rowan wouldn’t have time to drag Gordon to safety single-handedly. Beyond where the stretcher lay stood a massive grouping of boulders. It might provide cover.

  She ran back toward Rowan, stooping to grab one side of the stretcher. “We have to get to those rocks!” she shouted. He grabbed the other side of the stretcher, and together they ran for safety.

  The helicopter took to the sky, banking away from the airship just as the immense ship fired its first devastating blast. A huge patch of snow and soil blazed up into the air, leaving a gaping hole where the helicopter had landed.

  The pilot steered straight for the bank of gray clouds, vanishing into the mist.

  H124 leaped over boulders and logs, and they reached the safety of the rocks before the airship was able to fire again. She wasn’t sure if they’d seen them. She pointed to a large crevice in the rocks. “Help me hide him in there.” Together they steered the stretcher feet first into the dark aperture, then shoved him in until he was out of view.

  “We have to draw their fire, distract them,” Rowan told her.

  She nodded.

  “If Marlowe comes back with the helicopter, she can pick us up, and we can find a place to hide out until the airship’s gone. Then we can come back and get Gordon.”

  She frowned. “I don’t like this.”

  His eyes met hers. “I don’t either, but it’s the best hope we’ve got.”

  Gordon stirred in the darkness. “Go!” he said. “This time you have to listen to me. I’ll be okay.”

  She hated this. But if they all stayed there, the airship would find them, and they’d all be dead. “I’m coming back,” she told him.

  “I know you will,” came his voice from the hole.

  In the distance, they heard the thumping of helicopter rotors. The pilot hadn’t abandoned them.

  “Why are they here?”

  “They must have intercepted my communications. Learned your location when I sent Marlowe a message for help.”

  “What will she do?”

  “She’ll probably circle around to get us. Let’s keep moving downhill. Stay close to the outcrop.”

  She gave another nod.

  Rowan peered out. “The airship is higher up, chasing Marlowe. Let’s go!”

  Gripping her hand, Rowan sped out from the rocks, and together they raced down the mountain, winding among the thickets of dead trees, leaping over logs and rocks. The snow grew more shallow, now only ankle-deep. She tried to keep up with Rowan, but her body trembled with exhaustion, and her ribs throbbed. She couldn’t get a good breath.

  The airship fired another shot, blasting through the tree trunks. The cacophonous sound of splintering wood filled the air, and H124 looked up to see a mass of trees hurtling down toward them, flames licking up their sides.

  “We have to get out of the open!” she shouted. Fiery limbs crashed down around them. One caught her sharply on the shoulder. She staggered forward, landing on her hands and knees. An agonizing pain erupted on her skin, so she rolled in the snow, putting out the flames. Rowan reached a hand down to her and pulled her up. They reached the edge of the trees just as the airship fired again, toppling another section. Flaming logs hit the snow with a hiss and trundled down the mountain slope.

  “They’ve got infrared. It doesn’t matter if we’re in the open or not. We need something to mask our heat signature.”

  H124 thought of Gordon, stashed in the rocks. She hoped the cold, snow-covered stone would mask the warmth of his body.

  She looked off to the left, where a sheer rock outcrop rose out of the snow. Maybe there’d be another overhang, but if the airship saw them under it, they’d just take out the entire crag. Then she saw a deep crack in the rock, a V-shaped cleft. She could see light streaming through it from the far side. Right now the airship was thundering overhead, changing its direction to match theirs. She dove into some dense brush and crawled forward, Rowan behind her.

  “I’ve got an idea,” she said.

  Rowan hunkered down, lowering his back below the top of the brush. Snow rained down on them from the leaves. “Let’s hear it.” He scooped up heaps of snow and piled them on her s
houlders, trying to mask her heat.

  “We wait here for a few minutes, enough for the airship to move past us. Then we run for that cleft in the rock and jump in. If we can make it to the other side of this outcrop, we might be able to lose them long enough for the pilot to pick us up.”

  “Even if we do,” Rowan said grimly, “what’s the long game? They’ve got us hopelessly outgunned. Even if we elude them for another few minutes, enough for the pilot to grab us, there’s no way we can outrun an airship in the open. Not in that beat-up old chopper.”

  She gripped his arm. “We have to try. We have to draw that airship away from the location and away from Gordon.”

  The airship stormed past, its low throbbing vibrating in her chest. The snow cover had worked. Through the leaves of the shrub, she watched the gleaming silver ship maneuver farther down the mountain slope. She saw their chance. “Now!”

  She burst from the bushes and ran for the cleft. When she got closer, it looked narrower than it had before, a slender V cut into the towering cliff.

  It started about five feet above the ground, so she scrambled up the rock, grabbing onto ancient tree roots, and hefted herself into the crevice. Cold and dark enveloped her. She pulled herself up, shinnying along the cleft. Rowan leaped up, and she grabbed his hand, pulling him all the way in. Now her ribs were on fire.

  She gazed up. The sky opened up about twenty feet above. The airship would have a very difficult time spotting them in here. The immense size of the cliff meant it would be very cold around them.

  She looked to the far end of the V, seeing a patch of daylight not far off. Then a renewed thrumming filled the air. She watched as the daylight across the way was blocked by another massive airship, wheeling slowly in the sky. It rose up, passing overhead, moving back where they’d stashed Gordon.

  She met Rowan’s eyes in the gloom. “Can you ask your pilot if it’s clear out there? I’m sure she’s got a better vantage point.”

  Rowan pulled out his PRD. He started to draft a message to the pilot, then stopped. “No, wait.” He switched it off. “We know the PPC didn’t track your PRD because it’s untraceable. It must have been mine.” He stared down at it, looking betrayed. “We always remove the chips, but somehow they’re able to hack us.”

  She pulled out her own PRD. “Here. Use mine.”

  Rowan took it and sent the message to the pilot.

  “I’ll look,” Marlowe wrote back, “but that second airship ain’t far away, and it’s tracking me too.” Rowan handed back the PRD.

  They began to shinny their way deeper and deeper into the crevice, ready to go in either direction.

  Then a booming voice swept over the mountain. “We have your friend, the pilot,” said the voice. “Surrender now, or we’ll kill him.”

  Chapter 28

  She turned to Rowan in the shadows. “They’ve got Gordon.”

  His mouth was a gray slash. “They’re not going to let him go if you go out there.”

  “They’ll kill him!”

  “They’ll kill him anyway, if they haven’t already.”

  She bit her lip. “No. I can’t just let him die.”

  Rowan gently took hold of her arms. “You have to think of the big picture. If you go out there, they’ll kill both of you. And then who will reach the Rovers?”

  She slung her tool bag off her shoulder. “Look. Take this. It’s all the research I found on the asteroid. Find the Rovers. I’m going out there. Maybe my surrender will distract them long enough for you to get away in the helicopter.”

  “Absolutely not.” He pulled her close, pressing his face into her hair.

  “I won’t be able to live with myself if they kill him,” she told him.

  He pulled back, meeting her eyes. “At least you’ll be alive.”

  She shook her head, placing a hand on his chest. “Rowan . . .”

  Drawing her closer, he placed his hand on the back of her neck and pulled her into him, his lips closing on hers. She felt his touch all the way to her toes. She breathed him in, recalling their night in the mine. She wanted to stay with him. Wanted to live. But if Gordon died because she wasn’t brave enough to go out there, she’d never be able to forgive herself.

  “I have to go,” she told him.

  He pressed his forehead to her. “No.”

  “Can you think of anything else?”

  He fell silent.

  “If we stay here, Gordon dies for certain. If I surrender, there’s a chance they’ll capture me, and I could escape later.”

  “From an airship?” he asked incredulously. “Do you know how heavily guarded those things are?”

  “I have to take the chance.” She gripped her tool bag. “Promise me you’ll get this information to the Rovers.”

  “I don’t like this plan.”

  “Promise me!”

  He hesitated. “I promise. But I don’t want to lose you.”

  “Don’t give up on me yet. If I can find a way to get both of us off that airship, I will.” But her voice faltered a little at the end, and she knew then that Rowan saw how terrified she was. Then she moved past him and jumped down from the crevice into the snow.

  “Wait!” he called after her. “We don’t even know if they really have him.”

  “I’ll make sure,” she said, sprinting up the hill, sticking close to the rock outcrop.

  As she drew closer to Gordon’s location, she saw one of the gigantic airships had landed in the snow. Three men stood outside, two of them Repurposers dressed in their customary black suits. Keeping Gordon on the stretcher, they dragged him over to a ramp that led up into the belly of the ship. He was screaming in pain as they hefted him up the ramp. The third man, dressed in a gray suit, held a sonic gun on Gordon.

  She drew closer, keeping to the rock wall, and stopped with a start. Willoughby. The Repurposers emerged once more from the ship, scanning the snow. “There she is!” shouted one of them. She emerged from the rock, tromping toward them in the snow. Keeping his gun on Gordon, Willoughby gave her a look, but he gave no sign of concern or sympathy.

  “You made the right choice,” he told her.

  With his gun, he motioned her to board the ship.

  The Repurposers seized her roughly, forcing her up the ramp. Fear flooded through every vein, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. She remembered the feel of them as they pinned her down in that alley in New Atlantic, their cold hands on her, shoving her down, the whirring of the glistening tool.

  One of their suit jackets flapped open, and she could see the gleaming silver handle of his repurposing device tucked in an inside pocket. She tried to glance back at Willoughby, but the hand was too rough on her neck. Had he really betrayed her?

  They shoved her up the ramp into the main section of the ship. While the outside of the machine was all metal and utilitarian, the inside looked like a plush PPC office. Posh chairs, a bar, and media consoles lined the room. Gordon lay on the floor, still lashed to the stretcher. Their eyes met, and she saw tears trickling down his cheeks. His leg wound had opened again, seeping a pool of blood onto the floor.

  A pilot sat at the far end of the room, operating a vast console. “Take us up,” Willoughby told him.

  H124 heard the engines fire up. The floor tilted slightly as the ship lifted off, and the ramp closed, sealing with a clang.

  The Repurposers shoved her down into one of the chairs. “Want to do it now?” one asked.

  “I don’t see why not,” said the other. “We have some time to kill.”

  They looked to Willoughby for confirmation. To her horror, he nodded.

  She stood up abruptly, kicking one in the knee, but the other held her fast, shoving her back into the chair. He brought out his tool and fired up the motor. She heard the familiar whirring sound as it came closer to her head. She twisted away her neck, wre
nching her hand loose. Then a third Repurposer emerged from a back room. “Looks like you could use a hand,” he hissed.

  Gordon thrashed in the stretcher on the floor. “Leave her alone! I’ll kill you!” He started to struggle up, crying in pain. Then he freed himself from the stretcher and flipped onto his stomach.

  The third Repurposer clamped down on her hands, and they forced her onto her stomach as well. Now she heard the whine of the bone saw as the tool moved past her ear.

  “I’ll kill you!” Gordon shouted from the floor. Her eyes locked on his as he crawled closer, his face a mask of agony.

  Then an ear-piercing sound split the air. She felt a racking pain in her eardrums. A Repurposer fell to her side, sprawling on the floor. His eyes bulged out of his head, while blood trickled from his nose and ears. He gasped a final breath, then lay still.

  Another blast filled the ship, and another Repurposer crumpled half into the chair, blood flowing from his face. As another whine filled the room, the tool clattered to the floor. The third went down, landing across her body. Willoughby’s foot lashed out, kicking the Repurposer off her.

  Disoriented from the blast, she looked up. Willoughby stood over her, lowering his sonic weapon. Gordon reached her and clasped her hand.

  “What’s going on?” she heard the pilot shout from across the room. As she struggled to a sitting position, she saw him rise from his seat, a sonic weapon in his hand. Willoughby spun and fired, knocking the man to the floor.

  He knelt down next to her and helped her up. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want to shoot them while they were so close to you, but in the end I had no choice.”

  “Thank you,” she said, rising on trembling legs, ears ringing. She reached up, feeling blood trickling from her nose.

  “They’re pretty exact when you aim straight at someone, but there’s a little spillover if you’re too close.”

  She nodded dizzily, wiping the blood away.

  “Where’s the information for the Rovers?” he asked her.